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I’m deeply suspicious of “safe” Halloween events like trick-or-treating at the mall, or taking candy out of the trunks of people’s cars. Halloween is about knocking on strangers’ doors and demanding candy. Nothing else will do. But it needs to be done in the right neighborhood.
Whether you’re taking your children out on a door-to-door candy hunt or going out stealing bags, finding the right spot for trick-or-treating is vital. You’re looking for the a perfect mixture of quality candy, a low walking-to-candy ratio, safety, and that hard-to-define uniquely Halloween atmosphere that makes the the holiday special. Here’s how to find a neighborhood that checks all the boxes.
Avoid the suburbs
According to some urban design experts, a neighborhood that’s designed well for trick-or-treating is a neighborhood that’s designed well for everything else. You’re looking for walkability, and suburban neighborhoods, with their wide, curvy streets, houses set far back from the sidewalk, and general car-centered design are usually unwalkable and thus terrible for trick or treating. Older neighborhoods (and some carefully designed newer neighborhoods) are generally better for trick-or-treating than neighborhoods built during the suburbanization boom: Neighborhood built in the 1970s are usually the worst possible Halloween neighborhoods, despite that scene in E.T.
Consider the neighborhood’s traffic
You don’t need to stress about druggies dropping LSD in Halloween candy, but you really do need to worry about cars. Children are about twice as likely to be killed in car crashes on Halloween than an average autumn night, so a less dangerous neighborhood should be your first concern.
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In some cities, neighborhoods actually block car traffic for several hours on Halloween night. That’s the best scenario, but if that’s not your city, look for a neighborhood with narrow streets, so no one is racing down the block, and wide sidewalks with trees and grass separating them from the street. Make sure your kid’s mask isn’t obscuring their vision too much, that they’re wearing reflective material, and that they aren’t in a costume that will make them trip, no matter where you beg for candy.
Opt for closely packed neighborhoods
In his book Cities for People, Jan Gehl states that a neighborhood can be considered “friendly” if there are at least 10 doors for every 100 meters of frontage. This especially applies to trick-or-treating. You want a low steps-to-candy ratio for maximally efficient sugary-treat procurement. The steps from the sidewalk to the front door count, too, so look for doors that are close to pedestrian traffic.
Suburban streets designed with cul-de-sacs and dead ends might cut down on through-traffic, but they are terrible for for trick-or-treating. You don’t want to get to the end of a block and find you have to backtrack—so much wasted time. So look for a neighborhood with an interconnected layout of smaller, grid-designed streets.
Decorations and community involvement
Trick-or-treating isn’t only about getting the most, best candy. If it was, you’d do better to drop 30 bucks on whatever sweets you like and stay home. Halloween is also about the feeling of the holiday. For that you, you need to a find one of those neighborhoods where everyone is into Halloween: You need a block full of Halloween nerds who go all out with the decorations.
There’s a block not far from me where it’s just house after house of fully decked-out Halloween displays—I’m talking giant skeletons, fog machines, spooky music, rear-projected ghosts, front-yard graves and more. Not only are the neighbors providing free spooky-season atmosphere, they’re clearly competing with each other, and that means better candy. It also draws more trick-or-treaters, which only adds to the festive atmosphere. Plus, it means the home-owners care about their neighborhood and are probably pretty nice people.
If you’re going for an overall Halloween experience, consider trick-or-treating in an older neighborhood. The houses are likely to be close together, with friendly front porches, walkable sidewalks, and narrow streets—and older houses are just spookier.
